thee!" and though she may claim the return of all she brought, she
has no option but to go home again. He may repent and take her back a
first and a second time, but after he has put her away three times he
may not marry her again till after she has been wedded to some one
else and divorced. Theoretically she may get a divorce from him, but
practically this is a matter of great difficulty.

The legal expression employed for the nuptial tie is one which conveys
the idea of purchasing a field, to be put to what use the owner will,
according him complete control. This idea is borne out to the full,
and henceforward the woman lives for her lord, with no thought of
independence or self-assertion. If he is poor, all work too hard for
him that is not considered unwomanly falls to her share, hewing of
wood and drawing of water, grinding of corn and making of bread,
weaving and washing; but, strange to us, little sewing. When decidedly
_passée_, she saves him a donkey in carrying wood and charcoal and
grass to market, often bent nearly double under a load which she
cannot lift, which has to be bound on her back. Her feet are bare,
but her sturdy legs are at times encased in leather to ward off the
wayside thorns. No longer jealously covered, she and her unmarried
daughters trudge for many weary miles at dawn, her decidedly
better-off half and a son or two riding the family mule. From this it
is but a short step to helping the cow or donkey draw the plough, and
this step is sometimes taken.

Until a woman's good looks have quite disappeared, which
generally occurs about the time they become grandmothers--say
thirty,--intercourse of any sort with men other than her relatives
of the first degree is strictly prohibited, and no one dare salute a
woman in the street, even if her attendant or mount shows her to be